Heart of Black
by connienefertarinoir
Summary: *CHAPTER 14 IS UP* Yep, it's an SI. I am aware the majority of you hate it, but if you don't then by all means check it out. I'm just having fun with it. / A huge Potterhead wakes up in the body of 11 year old witch Elizabeth Fawley, in the year 1991. Shenanigans ensue.
1. Prologue

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"If someone had told me that my life would end after my 23rd birthday, I would have most likely looked at them funny and asked to spare the ominous predictions for those who actually believed in such nonsense./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"No, that was a disturbing thought to have. Not because I assumed I would never die, I'm not soft in the head. For some reason when you are in your twenties you hardly consider the possibility of kicking the bucket young. Obviously, it happens to some; you'd read about it in the news and would think of how terrible it was when young lives are interrupted so soon, and comment on the unnaturalness of such occurrence./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I passed away on a cold November night. Nothing memorable happened, it was no grandiose death. Because of that, I can never fully recall what happened to me, for some reason those memories seem to evade me to this day, while I can clearly remember even the smallest details about the life I carried until then./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was about to hop in the shower when suddenly I felt like I was being wrapped in a warm blanket, almost as if I was being enveloped in the black, thick darkness of my room. All I could hear was a gurgling sound bubbling up in my ears, just like at the bottom of the ocean. I tried wiggling my body but found it aching, the pain was shooting up and down my nervous system./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I desisted after a while, deciding it'd be best to remain still and wait it out. A sense of abandonment coursed through me, and I allowed myself to be numbed out by all the oddly relaxing stimuli around me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Finally, I was calm, happy, at peace./p 


	2. Chapter 1

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I woke up after what felt like ages. Oversleeping always had me groggy and in a bad mood all day, so I mentally prepared myself for a particularly rough awakening./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I tried stretching my arms, cursing softly when the movement was a little painful. Slowly, I rolled on my side and reached with my hands to my back, where I felt the most of the discomfort./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I gently massaged a point at the center of my spine and thought that I likely had a big bruise there. Scrunching my face in deep thought, I went through the events of the previous day and realized that I didn't remember anything in particular that could have caused it. Yesterday I had woken up, worked from home, went for a run, and got back to cook dinner, as always./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emApart from that run I was sitting down all day, so I couldn't have bumped into anything that would make me feel this shitty./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Nope, nothing came to mind. Weird. I decided to put my stream of consciousness aside and get up./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emBAD IDEA/em, my mind screamed. With a loud thump, my body fell back on the bed./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emOk, don't panic, it'll be gone soon/em, I thought trying to calm myself down./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As I kept musing over the pains of my body, I heard a clear popping sound coming from the left side of the bed. The room was dark, and I couldn't make out many things from where I was laying down./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As any good millennial trained for the zombie apocalypse would do, I reached near my pillow for my phone, so that I could use the flashlight and see what had caused the noise. I fumbled a bit with the linens and pillows, as I couldn't seem to find it anywhere, and my mind entered "alert mode" almost immediately./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As I trashed on the bed looking maniacally for my phone, the source of the noise addressed me from wherever it was standing./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Miss has woken up! Dixie knew it would be soon!" said a squeaky voice. "Dixie will call Madame to come to see you now!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"A second after that I heard the popping sound once more, and the mysterious voice was gone. What kind of name is Dixie anyways, some rejected idea for a Teletubbies? And who was Madame?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I wasn't sure of anything at this point, and couldn't Google my symptoms to strike out any sort of illness induced hallucination. My flight or flee instincts kicked in, but I decided to stay put and play it safe. Whatever was going on, I would take my time to study the situation and act accordingly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was then that the doors of my room opened up, allowing a stream of light in the pitch-black space. I couldn't even register the unfamiliarity of the place that an old lady, with flowing silver hair and bright blue eyes hurried towards me. She was dressed in an elegant white nightgown and velvet slippers./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Ah, emmon cherie/em! I'm so glad you are fine!" cried the woman with a thick French accent, sitting on my bed and gently circling my body with her arms. She had probably been crying profusely, judging by the redness in her eyes and wet face. I went stiff in a second, but couldn't do much more than just lie there and allow her to hug me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I was emso worried/em about you", she said squeezing me a little. "Zee healer said it would be weeks before you would wake up again"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Healer? Weeks before I'd wake up? Ok, something was definitely wrong here. I was either having a very lucid dream or had been kidnapped in the night by some delusional French grandma. Either way, it was quite disconcerting. So I asked what I thought was the safest question considering the situation./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What happened to me?" I said slowly, and a higher pitch voice almost childlike came out of my mouth instead of my own. What the heck?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The old lady's lower lip trembled a bit, as she seemed to fight back tears. She probably read the confusion on my face as a normal reaction to whatever I had gone through to need medical assistance./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""emMon ange/em, you were hurt in zee experiment your mom and dad were doing" started the woman, "and zee healer said you almost didn't make it"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"A choke interrupted her and she started sobbing./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"All thoughts regarding my voice forgotten once my parents were mentioned, I became extremely agitated. Sure, my parents were both scientists and most definitely conducted experiments for their research, but it had never been anything dangerous. Additionally, I hadn't gone to see them yesterday, so it just didn't make sense./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Where are they? My parents, I mean", I added quickly as if it wasn't clear enough whom I was referring to. Maybe the lady was just an emotional and overzealous nurse that my parents had hired and who had been told to stay with me while I recovered./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My question was met with some more sobbing, and my stomach dropped./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Oh, emcherie/em, I am so sorry" she sobbed and added in a strangled voice "they didn't make it"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was then that I fainted./p 


	3. Chapter 2

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I woke up again feeling cold and looked around in search of the source of the chilly temperature. For the first time, I took in my surroundings./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Unlike before I had lost my senses, a small porcelain lamp next to me illuminated the room. I was in a big, beautiful canopy bed covered in light grey bedding with intricate scrollwork details in lilac./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It went nicely with the rest of the space, which had indigo walls and dark antique furniture like in one of those old English Manors you see in Downtown Abbey./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I looked around and saw that the wall behind the bed was covered in windows. Most of them were draped off with heavy curtains; all except one, which was open and letting in a cold breeze. It was dark outside, probably the middle of the night./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As I snuggled further in the duvet, all memories of my encounter with the French woman flooded my mind after a minute or so and my breath hitched./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I needed to understand what was going on, as this didn't look like it was just a bad dream. On the other hand, things didn't add up so I couldn't just jump to conclusions. That, or I was in denial about the whole thing./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"With a heavy lump in my throat and tears threatening to spill from my eyes, I took a deep breath and decided to look back at everything I had discovered until then./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was in a strange house that I'd never been in before, with a woman I didn't know but seemed to know me (or thought she did), and there was this Dixie person who had gone to call on the French lady./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"If I truly had gotten hurt in an accident, I would have been taken to the hospital. And even if there were fancy looking private clinics in the world, I didn't see any machinery or IV sacks next to my bed. This looked like someone's house, and a pretty exquisite one at that, judging by the interior design./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Had I been kidnapped? It all reminded me vaguely of Stephen King's Misery for some reason./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I needed more information to get a full picture of what was going on, and to get back home as soon as possible. Considering that I was still feeling pretty crappy and wouldn't be able to leave on my own if I tried, I resolved to call out for someone to enlighten me further./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Hello? Is anyone here?" I asked tentatively and was again horrified to hear a high-pitched version of my own voice instead. Had the accident affected my vocal cords?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was in mid-thought when I saw it. Out of thin air, a small creature with bat-like ears and big, puppy eyes appeared next to my bed, making that popping sound I heard before. It was wearing a small forest green tunic and smiling wildly at me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I blinked once, then twice at the thing and my mind went blank. I think I was too shocked to react properly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Miss called for Dixie?" said the little creature with a pleading voice./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I must have looked quite dumb at that moment, as I just stared at Dixie for a good minute. Then I cleared my throat and addressed him (or her? It, let's call the thing "it")./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Uh, hello," I said cautiously, trying not to have a mental breakdown. "Would you mind telling me where I am?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""In Fawley Court in Edinburgh, Miss" Dixie responded promptly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Fawley Court in Edinburgh. Huh. Ok, this was getting weirder by the minute, but I needed to get to bottom of it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And…why am I here?" my voice sounding shriller than before./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Dixie looked at me as if I had grown a second head. "Because it is your home, Miss. You live here with Madame."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Madame…?" I asked uncertainly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Madame Noir, Miss. Your grandmother!" huffed the creature impatiently./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Oddly enough, that was more of a curveball for me than the fact that I was speaking with some strange looking being that really reminded me of… but no, it couldn't be. Nope./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I decided to play the post-traumatic confusion card and pretend I was just having a mild case of amnesia./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emMaybe playing along will get me somewhere./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Right, and err… Dixie, who am I again? That accident must have messed up with my head a bit." I said massaging my temples./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Elizabeth Fawley, Miss. You are the heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Fawley, of the Sacred-Twenty Eight. Dixie is honored to serve such an important family!" recited Dixie in one breath, bowing slightly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Ok, now I was on the verge of a panic attack. I must have been in a coma or something, it couldn't be real. It couldn't be. WHAT THE ACTUAL FU-/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Dixie, could you please bring me a newspaper?" I said suddenly, breaking that train of thought just in time before I started hyperventilating./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In a moment Dixie disappeared right before my very eyes, which caused my jaw to drop, and after a few seconds, the creature reappeared with a paper in its hands. I took it and didn't have time to thank Dixie that it spoke again./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Dixie will go prepare a meal for Miss, as it has been a long time since she has eaten," said in a worried tone. My stomach growled in response and seemed to only further prove Dixie's point. I nodded dumbly and again witnessed the disappearance followed by a loud pop./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emRight, OK./em I took a deep breath. emUnless I'm hallucinating all of this, I have just spoken to a house-elf called Dixie, who serves the Fawley family, one of the Sacred-Twenty Eight. Most important of all, it seems under the impression that I am someone called Elizabeth Fawley and my grandma is the French lady with grey hair I spoke to before./em I exhaled slowly. emBrilliant./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Brilliant, indeed. All those words most definitely rang a bell, as I had grown up to love the series of books about the Harry Potter world (not to mention its many fanfictions). To say that I was a huge Potterhead was an understatement./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I had so many conflicting emotions going on, a part of me wanted to start jumping up and down the bed, because MAGIC IS REAL, DAMMIT, and another part of me was about to burst into tears because I just wanted to go home./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I then realized that I was still holding the newspaper in my hands that was, you guessed it, none other than the Daily Prophet. The front page read "NEO ELECT MINISTER FUDGE ALMOST THROWN OUT OF THE WINDOW BY EX MUGGLE PRIME MINISTER", with a moving picture of what looked remarkably like Cornelius Fudge (the similarities between him and actor who played him in the movies were uncanny!) standing next to the unmistakable Margaret Thatcher. That threw me off big time, so I searched for the date on the corner of the paper./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was the 31st of July 1991. Harry Potter would turn eleven years old today. Hagrid was most likely breaking in the hut in the middle of the sea and taking him away from the Dursleys. And I wasn't even born yet. Shit./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"At that point, I could hardly believe my mind had manufactured it all. Looking through the newspaper, and the amount of detail there was in it, I somehow decided that this wasn't just a figment of my imagination./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Undeniably, my mind felt clear, and not under some spell. My heart painfully lost not to be in my home, and apparently not even in my time, but I seemed to be ok with the world I had stepped in. I had no idea how that had happened, or if I was still alive, but I couldn't bring myself to panic over that. It was an odd feeling, and I couldn't explain it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Mind over matter, I chanted in my head./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"After having gone through the entirety of the Prophet (which had me grinning and tearing up because OMIGOSH IT'S ALL REAL!), I wondered if the knowledge I had on the future of this universe was accurate, or if the Harry Potter books were just a dramatization of the actual story. Either way, I felt comforted by the fact that I knew quite a lot about the wizarding world, especially considering that I was just a muggle./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"One thing was for certain: I needed to keep a low profile for the time being. What if someone found out of who I was and what I knew? What would happen to me then? I wouldn't want to risk it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"This was a dream come true, literally, and while I would most definitely try to work out whatever had happened to bring me there, I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to just enjoy being in the wizarding world. No way in hell./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Those were my thoughts when the door to my room opened once more./p 


	4. Chapter 3

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The woman who Dixie had called Madame Noir walked into my room for the second time since I'd woken up in this world. Her attire had changed: she was now in navy blue formal robes. She held herself with poised elegance and seemed to be almost dancing as she made way to the bed. I then noticed that behind her a levitating tray with food was approaching as well, probably what Dixie had prepared for me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Lizzie, emmon cherie/em, I am glad you're awake once more," said the French woman upon arriving next to me. "I brought you something to eat, it will help with zee recovery"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I smiled shyly at that, seeing the look of utter adoration she was giving me. Who didn't like to be fussed over when feeling bad?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Thanks" I responded, eyeing avidly the stew with mashed potatoes fluctuating next to her./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The tray flew over me and landed on my legs, and after looking at my new grandma for approval, which she answered with a fervent nod, I dag in the meal. It was truly delicious./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"After a bit, Madame Noir spoke. "Dixie was telling me you were having memory problems?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I almost choked on the bit of potatoes in my mouth and chased it with some pumpkin juice. After recomposing myself, I tried to be as convincing as possible./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I think I hit my head badly, so I was confused for a while" my hand moved to the side of my face pensively./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She looked at me with a worried expression and seemed to think about it for a minute./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I will have to ask zee Healer later if we can give you a potion for it" her hands clasped tightly in front of her, "But what matters is that you will get better soon"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As I wasn't responding at all she added "I can also give you some old photo albums, family heirlooms and help you with anything you don't remember"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""That would be great!" I was truly excited at the thought of going through more magical artifacts. Meanwhile, I was trying to think of subtle ways to ask for information about my new "family". The best course of action was using my knowledge of the Harry Potter world to at least look like I knew the basics of how everything worked around here. It would make me look less suspicious./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""So…" I began, "I can't quite remember what mom and dad did for a living" throwing an innocent look her way./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The woman considered me for a bit and responded. "I suppose that they didn't talk about it to you a lot" she said. "They did not really tell anyone too, as they were Unspeakables"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My mouth dropped at that./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""They worked in the Department of Mysteries?" I inquired in a heartbeat. It was so fascinating to learn more about my parents in this world and learn that they were two badass wizards who worked on top-secret projects for the Ministry of Magic. But immediately after that thought, I was hit with a pang of sadness, remembering that they had both passed away. My enthusiasm faded quickly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She smiled sadly at me "Yes, both of them. That's how they met years ago." Her eyes wandered to the nearest window./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Madame Maxime herself had recommended your mother Jacqueline when she graduated from Beauxbatons to work there. And Edmund had been one of zee top students from Hogwarts and had decided to take up zee job after interning for a while."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What house was Dad in?" I wondered, not realizing I had asked it out loud./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I believe he was in Ravenclaw house", Madame Noir said with a little smirk. "House of the intelligent, right?" she shook her head slightly. "I never understood how things worked at Hogwarts"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She then turned to look at me curiously. "Have you thought of which house you would prefer?" asked Madame Noir breaking my train of thought./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My perfectly crafted poker face probably faltered at that point, as I could feel my right eye twitching. Just when you think there aren't any more bombshells to be thrown at you…/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What do you mean?" I asked in a little voice./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You will be going to Hogwarts soon, emcherie/em, and you never told me what House you would like to be put in" she said with a little smile./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"That could only mean…/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Wait, when was I born again?" The panic in my voice was obvious at this point, and I mentally cursed for dropping my façade./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Madame Noir seemed to be even more concerned, as she furrowed her brows pensively at me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""The 17th of October 1979, emmon coeur/em". Her eyes seem to tear up looking at my puzzled expression. She walked up to me and put a hand on my head, most likely checking my temperature./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I will go fire-call zee Healer immediately" the woman announced and sauntered out of my room./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In the meantime, my mind was on fire. I slowly looked down on my body, taking in the size of my hands./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Moving my duvet away from me, I noticed that instead of my usual black leggings and baggy shirt I was clad in what seemed like lavender satin pajamas. My feet looked smaller than before, and I appeared to be occupying a very small amount of the big bed I was in./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Christ. Or should I say Merlin?/p 


	5. Chapter 4

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"A couple of weeks had passed since that last conversation with Madame Noir, whom I learned was called Constance, but that past Elizabeth liked to refer to as "Nana Connie"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Once I finally got the chance to go shower, I realized that I had retained my old body. The short 11-year version of it, complete with shoulder-length honey-colored hair with a thick, puffy fringe, and brown eyes. Why was that? Was Elizabeth Fawley my look-alike (or the other way around), or had the Potter Universe somehow magically incorporated a younger me in its world? Did that mean I wouldn't exist in the future?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Gosh, it was all so confusing./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Because my body was still quite feeble, I spent most of my days in bed thinking everything through and resting. Whenever I felt like it, I'd walk around Fawley Court and get lost in its many rooms. It was a gorgeous historical manor shaped like an "E" and developed in three floors. The cozy English countryside design inside, with eighteenth-century paneling, carpets, and big paintings, contrasted beautifully with the eerie looking garden, which was dark and mostly left to its own./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"On a visit to its enormous library, I managed to snatch a few books on the Magical History of Europe and specifically Britain. It was a decent way to pass the time and also learn a bit more about my current reality. At that point, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was here to stay, or at least as long as I didn't discover a way to get back. I hadn't found any book that gave me a clue about my predicament, more so considering that I knew nothing about magical theory. I'd have to wait until I had a sense of what I was looking for. Or maybe I was subconsciously prolonging my time in this reality?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My mind alternated between moments of extreme elation for being a part of a book series I had loved for half my life, and others when I was crushed at the thought that I might not see my real family ever again. This was not a situation you could just feel one way about./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Dixie kept me company and cheered me up for the most part, and from time to time "Nana Connie" would chat with me or read me a story before bedtime. I appreciated it immensely; it could get lonely in that big house./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"After having learned the basics of my medical condition, asked a few questions about my grandmother and my family, I poked around the subject of Voldemort and the situation at the Ministry./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In my previous life I had been always very interested in politics, so I was thoroughly fascinated with how things worked in magical Britain government-wise. JK Rowling had only given us a glimpse into how the Ministry functioned, as Harry didn't seem that interested in the topic at all./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I learned that my great-grandfather Hector Fawley had been Minister of Magic from 1925 to 1939. Unfortunately, he didn't respond adequately to the threat of Grindelwald during his time, so he was forced to resign. Meanwhile, that occurrence had slightly decreased the prestige of the Fawley family, being one of the Sacred Twenty-eight still made me part of what was considered wizard nobility, which was great./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I didn't need to fear about being belittled for my ancestry, as all that seemed to matter nowadays was the purity of one's lineage. The Fawleys had nothing to worry about there./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Still, the question remained on what my family's allegiance had been during the First Wizarding War. So far it was clear to me that the House of Fawley was very proud of being pureblood, and had enjoyed its influence in Wizengamot. There were some rumors that Hector Fawley secretly subscribed to the blood purity agenda, but none of his sons or grandchildren seemed to have publicly affiliated themselves with Voldemort or the Death Eaters in their lifetimes. My parents, in particular, had decided to break with the family tradition of being involved in politics and went for a more scholarly career./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"One night, before going to sleep, I asked Nana Connie about her thoughts on the principles behind the war. She seemed taken aback by my sudden interest in the matter but nevertheless responded./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""My family, the Noirs, bragged about being zee only true pure magical family in all Northern France," said Nana with a small smile "but it has been confirmed that real pureblooded Houses stopped existing some time after zee 1900s"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"That seemed reasonable, there's only so much inbreeding you could do to maintain your linage muggle free./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""emMoi?/em I never cared about such things. If there is one lesson I learned after zee War in Europe was that we should all live and let live"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She tucked a stray hair out of my face behind my ear and continued./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""As long as we maintain zee Statue of Secrecy, there is plenty of space for us to exist and aspire to rule over our own kind. We can all be special and useful to our community, we just need to find our place in zee world and follow our dreams, while respecting the freedom of others"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"And I agreed with her. Blood purity was the equivalent of the Aryan race in Nazi Germany; supremacy based on ostensibly scientific hypothesis makes me feel sick to my stomach./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was glad to learn that my grandmother, as my guardian and only other representative of my House besides me, didn't hold particularly close-minded views. After all, another war was coming, and I knew which side would win. It would have been more difficult for me to get by in a bigoted pureblood family./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"At the same time, being muggle-born would have made me a likely target of the future anti-muggle agenda carried out by Voldemort supporters in the Ministry./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I didn't know how long it'd take me before I would get back home, so I at least felt less at risk considering the situation. Survival was my main focus./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My mind kept going back to the fact that I'd attend Hogwarts soon and how my presence would affect the "main story". As long as I didn't completely butterfly-effect the whole thing, I would try not to screw up important plot points, or at least ensure that Harry would still be able to defeat Voldemort when the time came. But no more than that./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In no way I wanted to be in charge of defeating Tom Riddle. None whatsoever. I would fight if strictly necessary, but I'd be cautious in sharing my allegiance to the Order's cause. Heck, I'd be careful in befriending any of the main people who would have to vanquish the Dark Lord just to make sure I wouldn't have to take too much part in it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My main goals so far were to get by in the magical community, learn how to protect myself and understand how and why I had stumbled upon this universe. And maybe have a little fun in between. emJuuust a little./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Don't forget that we're going to Diagon Alley tomorrow" reminded me Nana from the door of my bedroom. "Don't stay up too late tonight, we're going first thing in zee morning"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Yes, I would have some fun while I could./p 


	6. Chapter 5

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My lack of sleep that night was a clear sign that things were starting to hit me. While I had spent the past few days reading about the wizarding community and witnessing some magic around the house, it was a completely different deal to prepare myself to visit one of the places my imagination had traveled to so many times./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The Harry Potter books had been with me for the better part of my formative years. Like many others from my generation, it had arguably shaped my values and affected the way I was to this day./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I had been a very creative kid growing up, so the stories written by JK Rowling were right up my alley. I was the kind of child that got overly enthusiastic when thinking of imaginary worlds with spells and enchantments, magical creatures and talking objects, heroes, and enemies fighting for what they believed in. There was nothing I wanted more than jump into a fantasy book and join the characters' adventures./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Having to go to Diagon Alley now forced me to revisit that side of my personality and life now, and realized how much strength I had drawn from Harry's world. There were so many instances where I had escaped to Diagon Alley, Hogwarts or Hogsmeade with my mind when I was stressed out or facing a difficult situation. I believe my resilience in life stemmed from a mix between my rationality and the ability to create a safe mental landscape where I could keep my psyche in check. Needless to say, I was very possessive towards the Potter universe, but until then I had never realized just how much./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In no time, the sun had risen and Dixie had come to wake me up. Walking down the magnificent staircase of Fawley Court in my dark purple dress, I fought to keep my eyes open./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"A yawn escaped my mouth as I entered the large dining area, shaped in a long rectangle. The eastern wall was covered in windows, while the southern housed a roaring fireplace. I had long realized that the general theme of this mansion was dark colored wallpapers, black wooden furniture, and paintings of natural sceneries. You could find the odd portrait of a family member here and there, but most of the art in the house were landscapes./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I approached my usual seat near the head of the table, close to the fireplace. Nana Connie was immersed in the Daily Prophet as every morning, and only after a bit, she looked my way./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Good morning emmon coeur/em" Nana scanned my face and frowned slightly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You didn't sleep a bit, did you?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""No" I rubbed my face with my hands and sighed. I shook my head to wake myself up and went to grab some porridge with fruit./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Nana Connie poured me a cup of black tea and added milk and sugar just the way I liked it. Another thing Elizabeth and I had in common, as it appears./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Eat up then, we still have to go to Diagon Alley this morning. I'm afraid I won't be able to reschedule"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I nodded absentmindedly as I ate my breakfast. Nana was in charge of all the Fawley House business since my parents had passed away. I had learned through one of our conversations that my family was one of the main publishers of books in Wizarding Britain. That was plenty of work to keep anyone busy. It also explained the ginormous size of our library at home./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Eventually, we finished our meals and were standing in front of the fireplace of the adjacent room. It was a pleasant looking drawing room with large sofas and armchairs, in the usual black-grey-blue palette./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Nana grabbed a small porcelain container and handed it to me. Thankfully to my Potter knowledge, I had an idea of what to do. I tossed a generous amount of floo powder in the fireplace and walked confidently in it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Diagon Alley!" I cried and the green flames engulfed me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In no time, I reappeared in another place. I had barely managed to remain up by gripping on the side of the fireplace while coughing the soot trapped in it. I walked in the small, dingy room that I'd arrived in, and scanned the area. It appeared to be a dimly lit pub with just a few customers speaking in hushed tones./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emThis must be the Leaky Cauldron, /emI thought after a bit./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Not long after that, Nana appeared from behind me, emscourgifying/em both of our robes./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Right then, let's go", she said, hurrying towards the back door./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I followed her promptly, falling behind her as she walked. We reached a brick wall of a small courtyard./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Just as I imagined Harry witnessed only weeks ago, Nana Connie tapped a few bricks with her elegant wand. The wall started trembling slightly and after a few seconds, it opened an archway in front of us./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My eyes grew to the size of saucers. Here it was, Diagon Alley./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The cobblestone road was lined left and right with shops bustling with witches and wizards of any age. The place was positively humming with excited customers, most likely doing some last minute shopping before the term started. From where I was standing I could see a glimpse of the colorful displays of books, potions, brooms and magical creatures./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""emD'accord/em." Said Nana breaking me out of my trance. "What does your letter say again?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I reached in my pocket and retrieved two yellow parchments. The first read:/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Dear Ms. Fawley,/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Yours sincerely,/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Minerva McGonagall"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I still couldn't believe this was all real. I went to retrieve the other piece of parchment that contained the list of school supplies. Nana looked over from my shoulder and read aloud./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Uniform, robes, books, equipment… Ok. Let's go to Madam Malkin's first to get your robes settled"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"We made our way through the crowd and briskly walked towards our destination./p 


	7. Chapter 6

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" Once we finished with the uniforms and various robes, Nana and I moved onto the next items on the list./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The books were already taken care of, we had received the copies at home a week prior, but I still managed to drag my grandma over to Flourish and Blotts. The bookshop was exactly how I pictured it: small, cozy and with an entrancing smell of old parchment. I had to remind myself that we had plenty of tomes at home so that I didn't raid the place./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The Potage's Cauldron Shop was next, were we grabbed my pewter cauldron. The thought of me doing Potions was terrifying; I hadn't been great at Chemistry (even if that was my real parents major), so I didn't expect to excel in the subject./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"We stopped in Scribbulus Writing Implements for quite a while, it took me an awful lot picking quills and parchments. I also bought a diary that would reveal its contents only when recognizing the magical signature of the owner. It seemed a great place to start writing down everything I remembered about the Harry Potter books for future reference. I was bound to forget a few details with time./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"By noon, we had gotten almost everything, I was only missing a pet and my wand./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I walked excitedly towards Eeylops Owl Emporium, as I have a soft spot for animals. While I would have normally picked a cat since I've had them before and they're quite independent, I decided to go for an owl. It was far more practical in this world./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I saw a few kids fawning over a beautiful Snowy Owl in the front of the shop, but for some reason I found myself staring at small tawny owl with a pair of mischievous eyes. It was trying to break free from its cage, picking at the locket with its beak, and it was failing miserably. It was utterly adorable and gained major respect points from me for wanting to get out on its own. I think I saw myself in the little creature, being all rebellious and combative while really looking quite harmless./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"After I paid for him and some owl food, I walked away with my new companion called Ares./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The last stop of our tour was Ollivanders. The little sign in golden letters that read "Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C" was swaying in the wind when we reached the shop. A shiver went down my body, and I fought to compose myself./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"This was a momentous occasion in a witch or wizard's life. I would finally get my wand!/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"But being the worrywart that I am, I was dreading for the shop owner to somehow discover that I wasn't a witch and that I was an impostor living in someone else's body. What would happen then? Would they send me to Azkaban? Would I be emobliviated/em?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Sensing my nervousness, Nana Connie put her hand on my shoulder affectionately and guided me towards the door. The bell rang alerting Ollivanders of our presence. The shop was small, very small, clustered by shelves with a million of little boxes and a single chair in a corner./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Out of the blue, a man with grey hair and shabby looking robes appeared from seemingly nowhere and greeted us./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Ah! The Fawleys! I was wondering when you'd come to visit me"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Talk about tactless. The Daily Prophet had covered at length what happened to our family, so that was quite the awkward statement to make. Nana came even more close to me then, hugging me from behind./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""emBonjour/em Mister Ollivander," said my grandma through gritted teeth "Elizabeth would like to purchase her first wand"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The shopkeeper eyed me curiously and gave me a big smile./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Of course! Come, child, we'll take your measurements"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emWhat an odd man/em./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I untangled from my Nana's arms and walked towards the man, cautiously watching his every move. With a flick of his wand, I was attacked by a few measuring tapes that took note of every inch of my tiny body./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Once they disappeared, Ollivander didn't waste his time and went to grab a box in a shelf to his right. It was quite dusty, and even after he blew on it the thing was still quite filthy./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Ashwood, unicorn hair core, 10 ¾" described the man, handing me a light colored wand with a dark brown floral etching on its handle./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emThe moment of truth/em, I thought grimly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I waved it towards a shelf, and to my surprise, the boxes in it came crashing down./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""No! No, no, no."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Ollivander had to take it from me as I stared dumbly towards the disaster I had made. With a quick emreparo/em, everything was back to its original place./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I didn't have time to collect my thoughts that Ollivander had walked back to me with another wand. This time it was an elegant looking, brown one with a darker grip./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""How about..." He paused dramatically and only after a few moments gave me the wand./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Cedar, dragon heartstring, 12 inches"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Ollivander looked at me expectantly and with an attempted swish and flick, I destroyed a vase of flowers on his counter./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I think the core's right, but something is still missing" spoke the wandmaker, while searching through the shelves./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"He halted in front of his counter, seemingly lost in thought, and then hurried towards a particular spot next at the entrance of the shop./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"He came back in front of me with a triumphant grin./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Let's see this one", said opening the box. "Fir wood with a Dragon heartstring core, 12 ½ inches long" he moved it around "reasonably supple"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was a black wand with a brown spiral handle resembling a tree branch. Tiny leaves were engraved on the top of the grip. The instant it touched my hand, I felt something in the pit of my stomach. There was no crazy aura or light forming around me, none of what I saw in the Harry Potter movies when he found his wand. But there was a sensation deep within me, I felt something move and connect with the piece of wood in my hands. It was bizarre./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I looked up at Ollivander and he gestured me to move it around. I waved it and a bright wave of silver stars came out of the tip of the wand./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""The survivor's wand" murmured the man with an ominous tone. "Also particularly gifted in Transfiguration. Combined with a dragon heartstring core makes a powerful but quite unpredictable companion. This wand chose you, Miss Fawley. It is yours now."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"He gave a little bow and returned behind the counter./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Nana went ahead and paid, while I stared curiously at the wand lying in my hands./p 


	8. Chapter 7

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I spent the next few days once more with very conflicting thoughts and feelings./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Sometimes it was as if I had fully forgotten who I had been in my previous life, and I was comfortable with my new one as Elizabeth Fawley. At first, I blamed it on the fact that I can be a little selfish, as this was a dream come true and it made sense that I wanted to fully embrace this magical world. But I wasn't a monster, I couldn't have forgotten about my parents and my friends. I needed to get back to them!/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I had asked plenty of times to Nana Connie, but she told me time and time again that she didn't know the merits of my parents' experiment. All the notes on it were still in the Department of Mysteries, and couldn't be accessed, as it was classified /Like I have mentioned before, there was little I could read about my situation, as I had zero knowledge on what had happened to Elizabeth and me that day./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"But one thing was for certain now: I was starting to feel fully immersed in this new reality./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"There were moments when I was acutely aware that I didn't belong, that I needed to find a way home. I would spend my evenings in the library to look random things up, anything really, that could give me an inkling of what was going on with me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"But there were times where I only cared about today and worried about what would happen at Hogwarts or what I read in the Daily Prophet. My mind clearly remembered everything about the Wizarding World from both my Potter knowledge and the information I gained since my arrival, and my heart perceived the people around me, Dixie and Nana, as my family./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It didn't help that everything about Elizabeth seemed to perfectly align with who I had been as a child. No one had noticed any change in my personality whatsoever; none of the things I said or did seem out of place. It was as if Elizabeth and I possessed not only the same physical qualities but also shared all of our personality traits./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Was this the work of a powerful Compulsion charm? I had briefly read about it and made a little sense. Maybe whatever my parents (Elizabeth parents, not mine!) had done to bring me here, they had to add a charm of its likes to make sure I would carry on with my life as a witch in this world, and forget about my previous one./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"This still allowed a trillion of other possibilities to be true. I came up with new ones every day, in fact. Maybe we'd switched at the time of the experiment, and she was living as me 25 years in the future. Maybe she never existed, and the experiment somehow had changed to course of time and inserted me in the fabric of this reality. Or maybe I had died and reincarnated as her in this world./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was mind-boggling to say the least./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"When I had moments of clarity like this one where I tried to analyze what was going on, I worked on my memories. Now that I had a journal where I felt I was safe to write things without anyone finding out, I penned down all I /Starting from all the little facts about my past life to all the excruciating details of the Potter books I could recall, I made sure I didn't miss a thing. I couldn't forget, I wouldn't allow myself to. Without those memories I was lost, I wasn't myself, and one way or another I needed to retain that knowledge to either get back or survive here./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It also occurred me that it would be wise for me to learn Occlumency. I most certainly didn't want people poking into my mind and finding out about my dirty little secret. No, I'd have to pick it up as soon as possible. Now, with pick up I meant "try to get somewhere" with it. I remembered form the books that it was an incredibly difficult skill to learn, but I knew I needed to get a semblance of some mental barrier before anyone would try Legilimency on me. Still, it was a long way there, and I was still reading through the first few chapters on the subject./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"On my breaks from my work on all these things, I would fool around with my newly purchased wand. I couldn't help myself, having a magical stick to play with was thoroughly /I practiced a few simple spells, levitating and summoning ones at first, but I also tried some jinxes. Just in case I needed them, you know./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was able to perform magic as an underage witch because the Trace that was put on me when I was born had plenty of interferences from Nana Connie's magic, thus making it quite difficult for the Ministry to determine if it had been her or me to cast a spell. It was a well-known fact that the Trace was mostly for muggle-born wizards and witches, while half-blood and pureblood households were less monitored as they usually trust their magical parents to properly discipline their children in the case they perform magic. Quite the nifty advantage I had./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The days went by, and suddenly, it was the night before my departure from Hogwarts./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was sitting at dinner with Nana, the table was set for a formal banquet. She had instructed me to get cleaned up and wear my best robes, as it was a tradition of her family to celebrate thoroughly before the young ones had to leave for school. It was quite sad to see it was just the two of us, but we were the surviving members of our clan, so it'd have to do./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"We chatted about our day and at some point, Nana went down memory lane and recounted stories of me as a toddler, just like any good grandma would do. I could see she was overwhelmed with emotions when she described my first case of accident magic (" Edmund couldn't make you put down that cat, zee poor thing!"), and was probably due to the fact that she had to say goodbye to me soon./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Once we had finished and thanked Dixie for the wonderful meal, I followed her to her room. It was situated on the same floor as mine, the first one, in the west /We reached an ivory dressing table facing the windows, crowded with perfumes and makeup of all kinds. It could very well fit a palace like Versailles in style and size and didn't seem to belong to this house because of its light coloring. I supposed she had brought it here from her own home in /She took out her wand and gently tapped onto a wooden jewelry box on the table. It made a clicking sound and opened for us./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Nana then searched through its contents, as I watched enraptured the many different rings and flashy earrings she was pushed aside. She stopped her search when she took out a small gold necklace. Its pendant was shaped like an eye./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""This," she said turning to face me, " is zee Fawley family emblem"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She made a motion for me to turn around, and I complied. I felt her hands move around me as she clasped the piece of jewelry to my neck./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Zee's eye is an amulet that protects against envy and bad luck. It was in your family vault at Gringotts and has belonged to your Ancient House for many generations"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I turned to look at Nana and saw her watery eyes./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Your parents would have wanted you to have it", she said in a whisper only audible because I was standing so /She hugged me then, and I clasped my arms tightly around her too, overcome by emotion./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"We stayed like this for a while./p 


	9. Chapter 8

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The long awaited day had finally arrived: in just a few hours, I would depart from Kings Cross and leave for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As to be expected, I barely managed to get any sleep, and when Dixie came into my room, I bolted up immediately from my bed./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I bathed and got dressed in a cream collared blouse, black skirt and tights, with a pair of leather boots to complete the look. I secured my fringe to a side of my face with a silver pin as I was trying to grow it out, because I always hated it and couldn't wait to get rid of the hideous look. It was infuriating that I had to do it all over again, but alas, that's what you get when you regress to your childhood days./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Thankfully for me, I was now given the chance to correct my awful sense of style of when I was a youngster with my 23 year-old experience with fashion. Besides, I needed to play the part of well-dressed pureblood heiress, so I couldn't just show up in a muggle jeans, shirt combo and bed hair. That wouldn't do./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I barely touched breakfast that morning, and I checked about a dozen times that I had everything in my school trunk. Nana was fretting too, and would randomly ask me if I had forgotten anything important, always adding "if you need anything at all, you can owl me and I will send it to you immediately!"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"This time, instead of using the floo network to get to London, Nana decided to side-apparate to the station, just to make sure we'd arrive on time. We were quite early in all honesty, but I was glad to have the extra hour to get to the platform and find a compartment./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I'd been to Kings Cross before, but today it felt different. I noticed all the odd looking people that were suspiciously dressed, even if I guessed they had toned it down on this particular day. Not to mention the unmistakable trunks with a big "H" on their front; could have fooled me not long ago, but today they were an obvious sign of magical folk./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Nana Connie, who had also to muggle down her clothing just a little in order to blend in, was helping me push the trolley through the crowded station. We reached the space between platform 9supth/sup and 10supth/sup, and started walking towards the wall that would grant us the access to the Hogwarts Express./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I closed my eyes when we walked through the concealed entrance, and when I opened them again, I saw it. The train was a large steam locomotive tinted in bright red and black accents. The nameplate "Hogwarts Express" with the school logo shined brightly in the morning light, and I almost didn't notice the other families trying to walk around me because of how much I was contemplating the express./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Snapping out of my reverie, Nana and I walked to a railway employee who was sorting out luggage, and left my trunk and Ares' cage with him./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You should get going, emmon cherie/em" said Nana with the saddest tone I've ever heard her use. "You can find a nice place to seat and meet with zee other first years"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Ok" I responded, looking around me and seeing students already boarding the train./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She looked to be about to burst out crying, so she squeezed the living daylight out of me. A normal 11 year old would never allow such an embarrassing display of affection, so I attempted to escape her crushing hug./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I promise I will write often", I said, trying to calm her down./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""You better!" lamented Nana "Owl me as soon as you know where you have been sorted to"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Her cheeky grin made me chuckle, as I had never answered her original question about my preference for any Hogwarts house./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I will", I promised with a smile. I turned to leave, but then went back on my decision and hugged her again. She kissed me tenderly on the head and pushed me towards the train./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Go! emBon voyage, cherie/em"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I beamed at her, and then finally went over to the nearest carriage. I hopped on board, and made my way through the busy corridors, where students of all years were chatting up. I heard glimpses of conversations about their summer, talks about Quidditch (which I was mostly caught on, because it was such an exciting sport not to follow in my opinion), and nervous comments on future exams that term./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I reached an empty compartment and settled down with my leather satchel. It was still early, so it wasn't that hard to find. I looked out of the window and saw Nana still out there, smiling up at me. I waved towards her, but suddenly saw a blonde woman dressed in refined black robes approach my grandmother. I couldn't see much of her face, but she had captured Nana's attention, as she immediately sported a serious look on her face. I wished I could overhear their conversation…/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"That thought was interrupted by the opening of my compartment, and from the sliding door appeared two boys with first year uniforms./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"One was pale and stringy looking, with a wild mess of brown hair on top of his head, while the other had ebony colored skin and pointed aristocratic features./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Could we join you?" said the darker boy, with manners and apparel that screamed pureblood from miles and miles away./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emLet's get this show on the road/em, I thought./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Of course" I responded with a polite smile./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The two put their small bags (all very expensive looking, if I may add) in the luggage rack above the seat, and proceeded to take their place on the opposite side of mine./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""If I may introduce myself, my name is Blaise Zabini", said the boy who had addressed me before, extending his hand towards me. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Boy, they had taught them well./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Elizabeth Fawley, the pleasure is all mine", I countered shaking his hand with gusto./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The fair boy on Blaise's left also promptly offered his own./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Theodore Nott" added when I took it./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I'm really sorry for you loss, Miss Fawley. I read about your parents in the Prophet", spoke Blaise out of the blue, shocking me a little. But it made sense if I thought about it, most pureblood families raised their kids to know all about the other Ancient Houses and proper etiquette to address them./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I nodded stiffly but tried to direct a courteous smile his way./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Please call me Lizzie, no need to be formal if we're going to be classmates"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise seemed taken aback by that, and looked almost hurt by my comment, but it was then that Theodore intervened./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yeah, mate. Drop the act, you can't seriously want to speak like that for the whole year"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise considered him for a moment and then puffed his chest in a peacocky-kind of way./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""But it makes me look sophisticated!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Do you even know how to spell sophisticated?" responded Theodore without missing a beat. As his companion didn't answer him, a big grin appeared on his face./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I tried to cover up the giggle that was escaping my mouth, and ended up faking a cough to do so. The boys turned towards me and had very different expressions in response to my reaction./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Do YOU know how to spell it?" Blaise spat out accusatorily./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emI'd be worried if I didn't at my age/em, I thought dryly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Of course I do" I responded with an arrogant tone. They didn't know I was older than them in spirit (or was it mind?), so I didn't have any problems toying with them a little./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Prove it", barked out the first year, crossing his arms./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Let's see.. S-O-P-H-I-S-T-I-C-A-T-E-D." I finished, grinning victoriously at him. In all fairness, I was quite the capable speller at their age, and would have likely boasted about it if given the chance./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise looked at Theodore for confirmation, and he nodded./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Call me Theo", he said then./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise looked at my surprised expression for the change of topic, and clarified./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""He only likes swots like him" with a slightly disgusted tone./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""But I'm still friends with you, am I not?" offered Theo with the fakest innocent look in the world./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""That's because you hope to upgrade to 'wicked' like me, bookworm"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I shook my head at the two, as they bantered back and forth./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The train whistled then, signaling the start of our journey towards Hogwarts. I looked out of the window and searched for my Nana once more, and once I found her I waved to her one last time. The express started moving forward, and the bustling platform disappeared from the view./p 


	10. Chapter 9

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I'm telling you, the Magpies won't have a chance against the Tornados"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I don't know about that, they were brilliant against the Arrows"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What are you talking about? Everyone knows MacFarlan bribed his way out of that match!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""They don't seem the types to pull a Tornado all of a sudden"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Hey listen, at least we're doing better than that poor excuse for a team you root for, the emHoley/em Head Harpies"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I huffed angrily at that last comment and was about to give Blaise a piece of my mind on his own sad little team, that Theo spoke loudly over our discussion./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What is it about this sport that turns people into dimwits?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise and I both turned at the same time and sent him a death glare. We almost launched ourselves in a heated debate on the merits of Quidditch, but the door of our compartment swung open./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In front of us were a petite girl with big, bushy brown hair followed by a chubby boy with a terrified expression./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Merlin help me, I was face to face with Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Has any of you seen a toad? Neville here has lost one", recited the young student with practiced ease, already clad in her black and grey uniform./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In order to avoid a diplomatic spat, I took the question before any of my travel buddies could./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""No, I'm afraid we haven't" I said calmly, "but maybe you could ask a Prefect to summon it for you?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The girl looked at me with a mildly surprised expression, but was quick to respond./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Thanks, we'll try to do that when we find one" she walked out of our door and motioned for Neville to come along. She hesitated for a moment but added "See you at Hogwarts!". The duo of soon-to-be-Gryffindors left without another word. It was when the door finally closed that Blaise spoke again./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""That was Longbottom, wasn't he?" said the boy to Theo, who hadn't lifted his head from the heavy tome he'd been reading until then./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""So it seemed, Blaise, why the sudden interest?" drawled out the other, while aggressively turning the page of his book./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I dunno, I haven't seen him since I was 6 when Mother forced me through a play date with him and that daft as a bush McLaggen"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Theo rolled his eyes at that. "Don't remind me, I met that tosser at a charity ball my aunt threw a year ago. Worst evening of my life"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emGosh, they are so dramatic/em./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And pray tell, what did this McLaggen do to make you so miserable, Theo?" I asked raising a questioning eyebrow at him. He finally looked up and met my eyes, straightening his shoulders./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Well, for starters he wouldn't stop talking about how his uncle Tiberius will help him get far in Ministry when he's older" he sighed "and then went on an atrocious rant about his nogtail hunting sessions". I wrinkled my nose at that but allowed him to continue./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And I couldn't even get up and leave! I was supposed to entertain him as he was the only other kid in the room" finished Theo moving his messy hair away from his face./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Mate, that's why I didn't come in the first place, I knew it was a boring event", commented Blaise with an unperturbed face./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Couldn't you just fake a cold or something?" I inquired./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Theo smiled sheepishly at that. "I had for three times in a row, they wouldn't believe me for that one"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I laughed a little at that, but then heard the Prefects instruct the first years to change into their uniforms, as it wasn't long before we'd arrive at Hogwarts. I excused myself from the two boys, grabbed my satchel and walked out of the compartment towards the lavatory./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Once I was walking in the corridors of the train, my mind and poor heart had a moment to catch up with the current events. First of all, I had very unexpectedly befriended two future Slytherins and found them quite the enjoyable company so far. It was good considering that I still needed to uphold my presumed pureblood heritage among my peers. It made sense with my upbringing. Second, the Gryffindor princess and know-it-all of the golden trio had been in the same room as me for a hot second. It was quite surreal experience really, when one of the most well known characters of a book series just casually chats up to you in real life. If this could be considered real at all./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I pinched myself, as I often did since I had woken up in this universe, but I was only left with a little red bruise on my arm./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Once I was fully changed and ready, I went back to my seat. Theo and Blaise were now discussing our new school, as we were to approach the castle in just a little./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Just you wait and see, Theo. You're so going to Ravenclaw" teased the dark skinned boy./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What's wrong with that? I think it's a perfectly acceptable house to end up in" countered Theo with a huff./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Don't get cheeky with me Nott, you know your dad would murder you if you didn't get Slytherin"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"At last, the so dreaded discussion was taking place. Theo didn't respond to Blaise's zinger, and instead turned towards me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What about you? Have an idea of where you'll be sorted?" The question seemed to get the attention of the other boy too, and they both awaited my response./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I don't know" my tone betrayed my nervousness "I mean, I know it won't be Hufflepuff for sure"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""We could have told you that" chuckled Blaise./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I narrowed my eyes at him and continued, "My dad was in Ravenclaw though"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Theo seemed content with that answer, and smirked at Blaise. The latter didn't look convinced one bit./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Sure, you could be right at home with the Ravenswots, but you seem a little too feisty for them"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Was he drawing conclusions after only having met me earlier today?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Well but you get sorted into a House because you value its qualities more than the others, not because you're more or less extroverted"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Theo immediately joined my musings. "I actually think it's a combination of your personal motivations in life and the way you tackle the world around you"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Oh, so the reason why you do things and the method you use to go about them?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Theo smiled at me. "Exactly!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise looked at us dumbly. "Here you go again boring me with your swotiness"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Theo and I ignored his complaints for the remaining time on the train, which wasn't a lot thankfully because the boy does not like being snubbed. The train halted, and my heart started beating out of my chest. We had arrived./p 


	11. Chapter 10

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise, Theo and I hopped off the steaming express, trying not to get walked over by the overexcited first years on the platform./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My first impression of Hogsmede station was that it was incredibly chilly. I wrapped my winter cloak even more tightly around my small body, and started making my way through the crowd. The sun had already set; lanterns were placed on the ground to pave the way for the students./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As I looked around I saw a small glimpse of the somewhat faraway village. A soft cloud of mist was setting all around it, allowing the lights coming from the little cottages and shops to illuminate the area in the most delightful way./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was mystified by once again witnessing a place that originally belonged to my imagination come to life before my eyes. Would I ever get used to all of this?/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Firs' years this way! " I heard a low baritone voice say from a distance./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Shaking my head in attempt to compose myself, I kept on going through the platform. Theo and Blaise were looking just as curious as me, and we were all lost in thought when we came to a sudden halt as the other students had stopped. Before us, a giant man with long brown hair and beard, dark winter clothes and a genuine smile was waiting with a rather big lantern./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emAnd here's Hagrid/em, I concluded looking at the man./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Firs' years, follow me!" he said, motioning to go his way. The half-giant then turned on his heels and headed forward, a sea of children on his trail./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise looked my way with the most skeptic expression I had ever seen an eleven year old make. I shrugged, but I could feel a small smirk appearing on my face./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"We walked through a narrow path completely surrounded by trees. It was so dark I had to make sure I wouldn't step on fallen branches or exposed roots. The children all around me were talking in animated whispers, barely able to contain their anticipation./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec" the giant called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The path opened onto a big, black lake. And on the other side of it, elevated on a rocky mountain, there was a magnificent castle. It was medieval looking, with turrets and towers crowning the building and illuminating the area./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I wish I could have enjoyed more of the view of all the school grounds from where I was, but because of the late hour of the day, the castle was the only thing I could clearly see. Who am I kidding, I also think I wouldn't have been able to look at anything BUT the castle in that moment, as I felt my heart swell up in my chest./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was so ridiculously beautiful, and REAL. I kept repeating that last word in my head over and over again, as if trying to validate my feelings./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The night was particularly dark as only a quarter of the moon was high up in the sky, the little light it was shining was reflected on the dark waters of the lake. Once we reached its edge, Hagrid instructed us to get on tiny boats in groups of four./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I followed Blaise and Theo into one and a fourth student, a short boy who introduced himself as Terry Boot, soon joined us./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emRavenclaw?/em My mind tried to recall as we settled on the wooden boat. I couldn't remember if he was an interesting character at all, but since I couldn't even confidently state his house, I gathered he was another background student in Harry's year./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"No one was really able to speak at that point, besides the occasional "Oh!"s and "Ah!"s that we'd all emit as the little boats came closer to the castle grounds./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"When we finally reached land, we all started walking up to the entrance of the school./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Theo was telling me quietly about this book he had read called "Hogwarts, A History", where he found out that muggles can't see the school but instead find an old ruin with a sign saying: "DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Quite the nifty distraction from the best magical school of witchcraft and wizardry ever./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"In the meantime, a pudgy looking boy had walked up to Blaise and was trying to converse with him, to no avail since he barley ever responded or turned his way. He looked oddly familiar, with that bowl cut and round form./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Immediately after that thought, another child had come next to Blaise, slightly taller and leaner than the pervious one, but with a similar dumb expression on his face./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Wait a second…/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Crabbe, Goyle!" I heard a boy call out with a slightly high-pitched quality to his voice./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I looked to my right where a white-blond student with pointed features was approaching our little group. He didn't even spend a second gazing my or Theo's way, he seemed in quite the bad mood. I had no doubt on who he was./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""How many times do I have to tell you not to leave me ever? Come on" he complained crossing his arms./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The two who were by Blaise's side immediately scrambled to join the blond, who then left without another word and walked faster towards the front of the students./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I knew I had to feign ignorance on most of the people and things pertaining to this world, so I quickened my steps and caught up to Blaise./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And just who were they?" I said unimpressed./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The boy turned to me, rolled his eyes and sighed./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Just a bunch of losers" he said./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Seeing how my intent gaze was pushing for more details, he added "The two gorillas were Crabbe and Goyle, personal slaves of the one and only Draco Malfoy, the short albino who came last"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing at his description. I kept my mouth at a thin line to feign disinterest, but I could feel the corners of my lips turning upwards./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And they're not your friends?" I asked innocently./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Please, Blaise hates Draco", said Theo out of the blue, joining us./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Oh?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yep, can't stand him. And honestly, he is so annoying and full of himself that I don't blame him. But now that I think about it, maybe they aren't friends because they're too much alike" Theo finished with a small chuckle./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Blaise reached him with his fist and punched Theo in the arm./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""HEY!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""So you learn not to be such a swot"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""What does that have to do with anything? I was just saying that you're not that diff.. OUCH, Blaise stop!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"They were still being immature little children (well, because they WERE children, so I guess they were kind of entitled to), when we reached the oak doors of the castle./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Hagrid opened it up for us and allowed all the first years to get inside the entrance hall. Torches lit up the space, but their lights didn't reach the ceilings of the room for how tall they were. Almost all walls were covered in moving portraits, and a big marble staircase was positioned at the very center of the place./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"We all made our way up the stairs and climbed up to the first floor, where a tall lady wearing emerald robes and a pointed hat was waiting for us with a stern expression./p 


	12. Chapter 11

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""The firs' years, Professor McGonagall" said Hagrid as he approached the old witch./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Judging by the loud voices that could be heard from where we were standing, I assumed we were just outside the Great Hall. The first year students crowded the space and silently waited for McGonagall to speak./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Welcome to Hogwarts" said the professor. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I looked around me and saw a wide array of emotions displayed on the other children's faces. Some seemed satisfied with this arrangement, others appeared quite nervous./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emRight, because the Gryffindor Head of House truly believes that Slytherin is noble at all. Sure/em. I thought rolling my eyes. There were aspects of the world depicted by JK Rowling that annoyed me to no end, like the highly stereotyped Hogwarts houses. Gryffindors were the good guys, Ravenclaws the bookworms, Hufflepuffs the weak, and Slytherin the evil characters. It was so bi-dimensional it made my brain hurt./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I held my head high, and tried with all my might to look unfazed. Gosh, I was too old not to keep myself together at a time like this; somehow it was getting to me that I would be soon sorted into a Hogwarts House. Even with all its flaws, Potter fans can't help but dream of their sorting since the publication of the very first book. They speculate through online quizzes, psychological tests or generally referring back to the original lore of the stories and deciding for themselves which house fit best./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I wasn't any different, and had thought about it a whole lot, but generally speaking most of us have characteristics that would grant us a spot in any of the four houses. I would bet that if I had been sorted every few years in my childhood and adolescence, my house would most likely be different every time./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The problem isn't "sorting too soon", like Dumbledores says talking about Severus Snape, no. The problem lies in sorting people in the first place. Categorizing real people doesn't work and is highly unhealthy for the psyche; it's only acceptable when you're dealing with imaginary characters of a book. But oh well./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Still, while I could rationally see the faults in the Hogwarts system, I have always enjoyed being part of a group, and belonging somewhere. Heck, who doesn't? I was looking forward to joining my house and finding friends and allies for the upcoming school year(s?)./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"So, since I couldn't revolutionize everything for the sake of every Hogwarts child's psychological development, I had to think about where I would want to end up, and ways to make the best of my time there. Yes, I had to focus on the "right here, right now"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was so lost in thought that I missed the rest of McGonagall's speech, and only noticed my surroundings when we all started walking inside of the Great Hall./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The older students were gazing curiously at the newly arrived people, talking to one another and pointing at the crowd of children walking up the professors' table./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emWait a minute; they must all know Harry was on the train. That's what they're all excited about./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Of course, the Boy-Who-Lived is famous and it was no surprise that people wanted to see him at last. To be honest, I hadn't seen a glimpse of the boy yet./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was nice walking with Blaise and Theo, neither of them were chatting me up on the way to the sorting or looking for Potter. I was trying to get into my "Zen mode", so I appreciated the silence from their part./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emSo. Worst-case scenario is that I end up in Gryffindor./em I glanced at the red and gold clad table all the way to my right, full of boisterous children./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emHarry, Ron and Hermione will be there, AKA main plot would be happening right under my nose. While that is tempting, I'm better off somewhere else. /emUnless the sorting hat decides otherwise, that is./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emI guess Ravenclaw would be ok, not too many known characters; I can steer away from the loopiest and be fine. I can work with smart children, being more reasonable and all/em. I took a deep breath and kept on thinking everything through. The only likely Ravenclaw I had met so far was Terry Boot, who was a few people away from me, chatting quietly to a dark haired girl./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I have to say, the prospect of solving a riddle every single time I had to reach the common room was dreadful, but overall it wasn't the worst option./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Hufflepuff. Well. My main issue with them it's all the fair play, hard work, and love. Which shouldn't be an issue at all, they are the epitome of good people, but that means that it'd would require an awful lot of work to stick to their moral rules. Or at least, look like I did. emI bet they're all nice and fun as long as you aren't actively looking for trouble. /emThey don't seem like the kind of people you want to anger, as normally the friendliest bunch holds the worst grudges if you ever disappoint them./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"And lastly, Slytherin. The problem was that the vast majority of them were somehow tied with Voldemort, and while some of them had remained outside of the conflict, none of them had done anything in favor of Potter and the Light. It was a messy, messy situation to jump in all of a sudden. Not to mention Draco emDrama Queen/em Malfoy would be there, and god help me, Pansy emsodding/em Parkinson and all the other bullies. Nope, not interested, thank you very much./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Once more I had zoned out from the entire world, and the sorting was already ongoing. I heard the firm voice of McGonagall; she had just called Millicent Bulstrode. /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As I watched the pudgy looking girl approach the professor, my eyes focused on the magical artifact in the old witch's hands./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I had no way to cover where I came from and who I really was from the hat, I hadn't learnt Occlumency yet. Best way to deal with that was head on (empun intended/em), and have the ceremony be over with as fast as possible. Then maybe bribe the hat later, so that it wouldn't divulge my secrets to Dumbledore. Not an easy task at all./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emDumbledore/em. I audibly gulped thinking of him. emHe could be a big obstacle in my plans, maybe even use me for the "Greater Good" if he finds out I know the outcome of the war. /em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Fawley, Elizabeth" I heard suddenly, the stern witch searching through the crowd of first years./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I blinked a few times, coming out of my stupor and forcing my legs to move. I desperately tried to cover up my stiff legs as I walked up to the dreaded stool, where for the first time I saw the expectant faces of my future professors. I bet that my face looked as alarmed as I felt then. My eyes then locked with the headmaster's, and his blue irises twinkled softly. emDammit, I have to look away!/em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I averted my gaze immediately and looked elsewhere, trying to avoid a emLegilimens/em spell that could blow my cover. I decided to stare at the ceiling and focus on the lit candles that were floating over the Great Hall./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As I felt McGonagall take the hat and position it over my head, I took a deep breath. emBring it on./em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Not a second after I felt the material on me, I heard a booming voice in my head./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Well, well! Finally something different from the eleven year olds I am used to!" said the sorting hat, sounding amused./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yes, I am a 23 year old muggle living inside the body of a pureblood witch. Please move on and get this over with", I thought impatiently./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And with such a feisty personality too! Now now, I do not think you've got your facts straight, dear. I see no muggle in you. But maybe this is a case of a past life manifesting itself, extremely fascinating but also very rare…"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"That thought had me forget for a second about my plan. "No, wait. What? You've got it all wrong. I come from the future! I wasn't even born in 1991!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Really? That is unheard of! What a wonderfully mysterious occurrence! But I am never wrong about magical auras, and your soul has no muggle heritage. I wonder if you were destined to be a squib in an alternate life, but it wouldn't account for your interesting images of the future…"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I could feel Professor McGonagall move impatiently near me, which was a reminder that time was ticking. I needed to get sorted before it could raise any suspicions./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Ok, you can muse over the whole thing until next September, let's go back to business. No Gryffindor please, I can't do that because of my 'prior knowledge' of the future…"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The hat cut me off . "However, you possess a dose of recklessness required for the house."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Still, I am no fool and know when to act. Moving on, Hufflepuff won't do, I am not so morally…pure, let's say" I snickered./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""But it would help you work hard for your goals" responded promptly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I continued with my rant. "Ravenclaw is probably your best option, I am decently smart and can hold my own among them. Slytherin would just complicate things…"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""My dear, I think you confirmed my theories on your character with this little monologue of yours" said suddenly the hat./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My eyes got as big as saucers. /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""WAIT, what do you…"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""SLYTHERIN!" roared the magical piece of cloth./p 


	13. Chapter 12

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I almost didn't hear the loud clap I received upon my sorting. I was still shell-shocked, my brain struggling to catch up with reality, and I only vaguely nodded at my fellow housemates as I sat down at the Slytherin table./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Ok. So. It's not as if I didn't expect it at all, Pottermore had confirmed it multiple times that I indeed was part of the snake house. As all Potterheads know, that is the closest thing to having JK Rowling herself pick for you. However, it was a whole other story hearing from the real sorting hat that you belong with the most misunderstood, morally grey characters of the series. Needless to say, I had a lot to process./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I looked up to see a small first year getting into Hufflepuff, and smiling so much it was contagious. I watched enraptured as he hopped off the stool and reached his table, welcomed by happy cheers. An older student even amicably threw an arm around his shoulders./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The Slytherins weren't nearly as warm when a new student was sorted into their house. No big show, no extravagant demonstrations like the Gryffindors. Slytherins would always applaud for every single student, and would politely strike conversation with you if you seated next to them. It wasn't enthusiastic, but not emthat/em bad overall. Gave me time and space to think and breathe./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Then it was Malfoy's turn, who took approximately half a millisecond to get sorted. His smirk was bigger than his entire face. emMerlin save us all. /emI watched him waltz to the opposite end of the table with Crabbe and Goyle./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Soon after that Theo got called, and his expression was so terrified it was comical to say the least. Part of me wanted to reassure him that he was indeed getting into Slytherin, the other enjoyed seeing him squirm just a little. Not a moment later, he came running over to where I was seated, and plopped on the chair in front of me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I can't believe it", said out of breath. He too seemed in dire need of a moment to think everything through./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Join the club" I replied sarcastically. When his sour look didn't get any better, I offered a half-smile. "At least your father will be happy". He rolled his eyes at that, but his shoulders seemed to relax a little./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Right, Mr. Nott will indeed be content with the turnout", said Theo, massaging his temples./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The room got suddenly quiet, and my attention was diverted to the front of the Hall. And it was then I saw him./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Round glasses, thin frame, and messy raven hair. The unmistakable trademarks of one Harry Potter./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I had to fight the urge to smile at the sight of him, the boy whose adventures and misfortunes had accompanied my childhood./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As I remembered from the books, he took his time to get assigned to Gryffindor, and I could almost hear in my head the whole conversation in Harry's head with the hat about not going to Slytherin. Pity, it would have been fun otherwise./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Everyone knew he was going to emthem/em" I heard Theo say in hushed tones. emThem/em. I smiled a little at that./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""I don't know, I could have seen him in Slytherin too" I daringly commented. This attracted the attention of a few others around me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Are you mad? He's a Potter, his whole family has been in Gryffindor" snapped a blonde girl on my right./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Her face was heart shaped and perfectly symmetrical, her nose dainty. Baby blue irises were staring back at me with a hint of curiosity./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I took my time to consider her, carefully weighting my words before answering./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Only someone who has been fated to greatness could be able to survive one of the most powerful dark wizards of our history"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I heard murmurs of approval and a few gasps for mentioning the Dark Lord so casually, but overall I had convinced my crowd./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The blonde, a first year just like myself, tilted her head ever so slightly and scanned my face for a minute. She then extended her hand./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Daphne Greengrass, pleasure to meet you"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I grinned and shook her hand. "Elizabeth Fawley, but Lizzie's fine too"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"When emPotter show time /emwas over, everyone resumed their own chats, and it was only after Blaise had sauntered over to where Theo and I were sitting that the Great Hall was filled with more silence./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Dumbledore spoke, welcomed us all to Hogwarts, and gave us the ground rules of the school. Seriously though, it was a pretty dangerous place to be in, I was baffled that we were even allowed so much freedom as we were./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"When the banquet came to an end, the respective prefects guided every house to their common rooms. Ours was a lady called Gemma Farley, a strawberry blonde, green eyed 7supth/sup year with perfect teeth and petite build. Her voice was demanding but charming at the same time, and she ordered us to start following her./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"We reached the dungeons in no time, as there was a door right outside the Great Hall./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"When we arrived at the concealed entrance, I almost could not spot it. But I remembered from the Chamber of Secrets that without a password, the passage would not reveal itself./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The prefect uttered emSemper Sursum/em ("always aim high" in Latin) at a grey wall, and something softly clicked. Suddenly it moved, leaving space to dark entrance with wide stairs going downwards. /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"As we walked down, the green-lit space opened in front of us./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Stone walls only ever interrupted by columns and big floor-to-ceiling arched windows, looking into the depths of the Black Lake./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The common room was tall, aquarium-like, with green lamps that illuminated the space. On the wall to the left of the main staircase was a crackling fireplace. A menacing looking snake carved out of stone crowned it, adding to the already eerie looking room. We were motioned to sit in front of it on the two facing black button-tufted leather couches, and we quickly obliged./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"While I could hear some students whispering to one another in both fright and excitement, I was too busy looking around./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The common room was divided in a main area where we were currently in, and a right wing that resembled the style of the former, minus the fireplace./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"On the farthest wall from the entrance, the space would twist in small, semi-circular sections almost completely encased in windows, with cushioned benches. I thought to myself that it was a perfect spot to admire the underwater scenery./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The rest of the walls were covered in tapestries with serpentine designs and various silver ornaments. Other furnishings like tall, dark libraries, a big wooden table in the middle, a few desks and forest green tartan armchairs completed the look of the place./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was then that the Prefect loudly coughed to get our attention./p 


	14. Chapter 13

p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Alright, then! Quiet, all of you. You'll have plenty of time to chat after this", exclaimed Prefect Farley in order to silence the crowd of first years./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The murmurs slowly faded, and about thirty pairs of eyes were intently staring at the blonde in front of the fireplace. The flames made her seem imposing, frightening even in the eyes of all the eleven-year-olds, new to all things Hogwarts. I have to admit it was quite intimidating./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Gemma took a few more seconds to scan the room before she began speaking again. The only audible background was the cracking of the fire and a faint underwater sound coming from the windows./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Good evening everyone, it is my utmost pleasure to welcome you all to Slytherin house!" she grinned and paused dramatically, the reality of it all beginning to sink in. For the love of Go-… Merlinem (have to get used to saying that!)/em, it was all pretty surreal./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""For all of those who have been emliving under a rock/em and are not aware of what of an honor this is, let me tell you a little more about this prestigious wizarding community." Her sass grabbed everyone's attention./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Our house was established by Salazar Slytherin, an incredibly brilliant and accomplished wizard, and one of the founders of Hogwarts. He prided himself on his magical abilities and impressive pureblood lineage, and because of that he favored those who shared such heritage."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emPureblood supremacists rejoice, there's a school club just for you! /emI thought darkly./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""He chose as emblem a green serpent, the wisest and most cunning of creatures. And like serpents, all those who are Slytherins are particularly clever minded and resourceful."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I glanced meaningfully at Crabbe and Goyle just sitting by the fire and raised a questioning eyebrow. I could hear Theo suppressing a laugh next to me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""But most important of all", continued the Prefect undisturbed, "Salazar preferred students who valued their ambitions over any other thing in the world. In other words, you are more driven and more likely to achieve success than any of your peers in this castle. Because all of you have what Salazar called the emseed of greatness./em"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Gemma was looking at us all now, pausing every so often to gauge the emotions in the room. She was a very commanding public speaker, and all newly sorted Slytherins seemed as if they'd been promised eternal power and glory./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""BUT!" she roared and caught me off-guard, "that does not mean that you will not try your best in here and just expect success to fall on your lap. You are fortunate enough to be part of the most illustrious house of all Hogwarts, and because of that, you need to work hard for the house and ensure we are the always on the winning end. Us Slytherins, we play to win, not to participate." She walked up to a small boy and her smirk was wide and slightly threatening. "We'll make sure that message is clear enough in the next few weeks."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The boy audibly gulped and nodded as if he had been asked a question. The Perfect just snickered and carried on with her speech./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Let me dispel a few myths for you on our House. You will have heard a lot of unfounded gossip about us, a lot of hate. Forget about those useless comments, they are coming from a bunch of extremely sore losers who are jealous of our triumphs. Focus on what we are instead, and what makes us the best House. We are like our symbol: proud, powerful and most times misunderstood./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"And like snakes, we hunt in packs. We have a deep-rooted sense of community and are extremely keen on being a unified front. Once you're one of us, you're one of the emelite/em." She held her head high, her words ritualistic and formal. "You can rest assured that no one will betray you in here, unlike in the other houses. It'll always be an unspoken rule that if a fellow Slytherin needs help, any of us will come to their rescue. No dark corridor or hallways will ever look scary knowing that you have the serpents by your side."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"That seemed to have an effect on the audience, as people were looking at each other with solemn expressions. This whole thing felt like a social experiment; as if we were being forced to bond over the fact that we literally had no other allies but ourselves in the school./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Now, I cannot empossibly/em tell you all there is to know about Slytherin, so because of that, every single one of you will be assigned to a sixth or seventh-year student that will act as your mentor for the first semester here. You will find your appointed Slytherin on the noticeboard next to the entrance." she paused and with a low voice added, "make sure you listen carefully to everything they say". In a second, her whole body relaxed once more, she moved gracefully towards the fireplace and continued "And just to throw in another housekeeping memo, on the same board we'll post the password to the common room that changes every fortnight, so make sure to remember that."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I was pretty sure I'd forget to check at least a million times./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And if you forget the password for some eminane/em reason" she rolled her eyes at that, " you might want to make friends in here and stay true to our tradition of fraternity among us Slytherins."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I turned to Blaise and Theo who were smiling sheepishly at me. I felt a little relieved seeing them so eager to be my house buddies./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""And that's it, folks. Professor Snape, the potion's master at Hogwarts, is our Head of House and will give you his own welcome when he gets the chance this week. He's a little on the scary side, but he has a soft spot for Slytherin, so make sure not to anger him and you might just survive his class."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The idea of having Snape as head of the house was far from enticing, but alas, it was better than being Gryffindor and having to deal with his hate at Potions every day. emI'll leave that to Harry, thank you very much. /em/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Remember, we are a family" she paused on the last word and slowly continued "and as such, whatever happens between us STAYS between us. There'll be consequences I'd rather not say if it were to happen otherwise", said Gemma cryptically, her eyes twinkling softly in the dark common room./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She then instructed us to go check out our dormitories and get ready for the following day. Once we'd been dismissed, I waved Theo and Blaise goodbye and went to the right side of the entrance arch, where the girl's bedrooms were located./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The rooms seemed carved out of stone and were alike in furniture and decorations, but varied in shapes. Some were rectangular, others perfectly squared. Mine was a long corridor of four lined up four-poster beds, with one wall completely made of glass overlooking the lake. If I ever wondered what being a goldfish was like, I had now the chance to live in the closest thing resembling a fishbowl./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The forest green drapes and silver linings, together with the greenish lamps only added to the underwater ambiance. I found my trunk with my initials at the very first bed near the door and plopped down on it to test it out. I then heard the door of the room opening and saw three girls entering the dormitory./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"It was the heart-shaped, blonde girl from earlier, followed by two other ones I had yet to meet. Daphne approached me with a slight smile, seeing a familiar face seemed to put her in a good mood./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Hello there, I'm Lizzie Fawley" I offered my hand to shake to my new roommates./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Viola Richmond" sputtered a very ginger and very pale looking girl; her grey eyes were oddly bright in the dimly lit room. Her hand barely made any contact with mine, as if afraid to contract any lethal germ from the interaction. She swiftly moved to her bad at the far end of the room./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I then turned to the other one standing right beside Daphne, a brunette with pitch-black eyes. Her cheekbones were prominent, her face serious. She went to adjust her black-rimmed rectangular glasses and then formally introduced herself./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""My name is Lily Spencer-Moon, with "Spencer" and "Moon" hyphened, not one word", she tattled with a monotone voice. "Related to emthe/em Leonard Spencer-Moon"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She looked at me waiting to make a connection and recognize her. I obviously had no idea who this Leonard was, so I just dumbly stared back./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Riiight" I responded sounding very confused. Nothing seemed to come to mind./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"She was puzzled by my ignorance. "How do YOU not know of all people? Leonard Spencer-Moon! Minister of Magic right after Hector Fawley, emyour grandfather/em, after he was forced to resign" she sneered, making me want to punch her face. Dear Morgana, it's as if she had prepared the whole little speech for years before actually meeting me./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""emGreat/em-grandfather" I corrected through gritted teeth, " You mean you're related to the tea-boy who got promoted? That's sweet, I'm sure you must be proud". I was glad I remembered emsome/em History of Magic to counter back. /p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"My snarky comment didn't go unnoticed by Daphne, who was now sitting on my bed and watching the heated exchange./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Lily's temper flared up, as she fidgeted with her glasses. "He was one of the best Ministries of Magic yet! Unlike emFlamboyant/em Fawley who was such a disappointment"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I clicked my tongue and was about to respond when Daphne intervened./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Aren't you related to the Muggle Royal family too? There's that Diana Spencer who's Princess of Wales now". I turned to look at her; she had a devious smile made her look like the Cheshire cat./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The comment made Lily press her lips in a thin line, and look intently at the blonde. She had basically called her out on not begin pureblooded and it was priceless./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;""Yes, indeed, we are related" her eyes never leaving Daphne's "but we rarely ever see her"./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Daphne continued without missing a beat. "It must be hard dealing with the adultery scandal right now, could compromise her marriage to the future King of England", she responded sweetly at Lily./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"The brunette just mumbled a few words back and promptly excused herself to go to sleep. I just gave Daphne a look of pure adoration, and she mouthed a "You're welcome" as she went to bed as well./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"emMan, these children are out for blood/em, I thought while prepping myself to sleep. I should have expected weird rivalries among kids, but these rich brats liked to mess with family names and brag about pretty much anything. I was also surprised at my own anger at Lily for speaking badly of some relative I had never met. I guess I had been sorted in Slytherin for a reason./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"I don't know when I managed to fall asleep that night; the last I remember was the lulling sound of the water against the windows./p 


	15. Chapter 14

I woke up much later and half expected for it to be midday. The events of the previous day had knocked me out, and I struggled to believe they had all taken place. I shook my head in my pillow fighting the headache that was slowly drilling my brain.

Out of habit, I tried to reach for my phone to check the time, and when I didn't find it, I lightly facepalmed. Thankfully I had learned the spell for it, so I grabbed my wand from under my pillow ( _Constant Vigilance!_ Moody would be proud) and slowly flicked it.

6:45 AM.

 _How on earth am I up this early?_

Quite surprised with myself, I tried looking around the pitch-black room and could just make out the sleeping forms of my roommates. I had neither intention nor desire to wake them up; it was their job to get ready in time.

With a swift motion, I rolled out of bed, trying to be as quiet as possible. After years of sneaking out of bed late at night, I was as silent as a cat. My hands reached for my hair and pulled it into a messy bun, my eyes still sleepy and unfocused.

With a low _Lumos_ I searched for my uniform and toiletries and headed to the bathroom at the end of our room. I made quick work of cleaning and getting ready for the day, and as soon as I was done I got out of the sleeping quarters.

The common room was more populated than I expected, apparently, Slytherins were used to waking up early. I searched for familiar faces, but when I saw none, I decided to go to breakfast on my own.

My ascent from the dungeons helped me wake up a little more, as the cold, large corridors and staircases were very much a labyrinth and required my full mental abilities. I wrapped my arms around my tiny body under the cloak, and soon I arrived at the entrance of the Great Hall. The doors were wide open, and a low chattering was filling the room.

As one would expect, at 7:30 in the morning you could mostly find Ravenclaws and Slytherins at breakfast. I walked swiftly to the very end of my House table, towards the professors' one, where I caught a glimpse of Blaise and Theo.

"Morning!" greeted enthusiastically Blaise as I approached. His smile was too big and bright for the time of the day. I eyed him suspiciously.

"Morning to you too, Mr. cheerful" was my response, as I sat next to Theo and opposite him. The brown haired boy seemed to mirror much more my distaste for early rising, judging by his grumpy expression.

"It's our very first day at Hogwarts, we need to be fully ready for what's ahead" announced Blaise as he bit into his toast and looked around himself with an enthusiastic expression.

Theo was busy reading the Prophet and didn't even look my way when he spoke.

"Don't mind him, he's always like this in the morning" muttered and then took a sip of tea. "Bloody annoying if you ask me, but he can't seem to stop".

This response got a reaction out of Blaise, as he immediately frowned at his friend. Then, a split second after, he turned towards me and flashed another smile.

"I am only trying to start the day with the right foot! I need to make a positive impression on our upperclassmen if I want to make a name for myself here" exclaimed proudly. His Slytherin ambition was quite apparent, and the fact surprised me considering his young age.

I cocked an eyebrow at him, looked at Theo who just raised his shoulders in response.

Blaise was unperturbed by our lack of enthusiasm and continued with his rant.

"Have you all met your mentor? Mine is a seventh-year girl called Zoe Accrington, I made sure I introduced myself last night. A bit stuck up, but I'm sure I can work with her".

My brows furrowed in thought as I recalled the other night's speech by our Perfect. I completely forgot to check who mine was that morning, and honestly, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I shrugged and turned to Theo, who was now folding the prophet and finishing his breakfast. I snatched it from him and poured myself some juice.

"I read mine is a certain Peregrine Derrick, I don't know who the bloke is yet", admitted the boy with a seemingly worried expression.

"I have no clue who mine is" I replied nonchalantly, biting into an apple and opening the newspaper. When silence met my answer, I looked up to see a livid Blaise.

He was evidently appalled by our nonexistent sense of initiative, and he leaned forward with a contrite face.

"That's no good! You both need to make the effort to go and find them", insisted Blaise with urgency. "This was the only thing my mother made me swear I wouldn't forget to do here, she repeated more than a hundred times that I needed to treat my mentor extremely well." Immediately after he finished the sentence, he made sure to politely nod at a group of older Slytherins passing by.

"What do you mean? How is that important?" I wondered out loud, puzzled by the whole concept. "I mean, I get that we have someone to go to if we get lost or need help with a professor, but I don't see how I need to pester this seventh year as soon as I walk in here".

"You don't know, do you?" said a voice to the right of us. I turned and saw Daphne as she made her way next to Blaise. The latter eyed her curiously but kept silent as she took a seat next to him.

"Our house is not like the others" she hesitated a little and looked around to check if someone was overhearing the conversation. "Things… happen, especially for first years. The key to it all is our mentors".

My skepticism must have been coming out of my pores since Theo intercepted the conversation before I could rebut.

"She's telling the truth, even my father warned me about it" he adjusted his hair anxiously, "He wouldn't ever share the full story, but there is some sort initiation to Slytherin. A series of trials and a ceremony of sorts".

I rolled my eyes at that. "What is this, some kind of stupid test to see if we're worthy?", I chuckled at the thought. We weren't trying to rush into some kind of fraternity, we were just a bunch of 11-year-olds in a British boarding school.

Blaise glared at me. "This is not a joke. I've heard stories of it, and they were all terrifying". The other two nodded at that.

"My cousin told me it's been a tradition for over five centuries" Daphne sputtered, "He said he will never, ever forget it".

This didn't make sense. How was it that no one knew about this? The books never mentioned any kind of special initiation for the Slytherins or any strange behavior of the first years.

"Does anybody know about this? How do they keep it a secret from the parents?" I asked curiously. "If it's that scary, I'm sure some crybaby couldn't handle it and spilled the beans".

Theo shook his head at that. "I heard they make you take an oath that forbids you from saying anything about it to anyone who isn't from Slytherin".

I had to pause at that and consider his words. It started to sound more and more suspicious by the second.

"How bad is it?" I dared to ask. Daphne's blue eyes grew darker at that.

"Very bad. If you don't do as they say you most likely will get bruises, some broken bones even."

"WHAT?" my exclamation momentarily caught the attention of some nearby Ravenclaws. My fellow housemates were not pleased and proceeded to shush me.

"I'm sorry! I just can't understand how can the school not know of this if all the Slytherin first years get sent to the Hospital Wing by the end of the month".

A smirk suddenly appeared on Theo's face. "No worries there, my father told me Gryffindors are still the number one most hospitalized house of the whole school, even without any kind of initiation."

"Serves them right for being a bunch of reckless tossers" snickered Blaise.

"Still," I said unconvinced, "I can't imagine what the hell they'd have us do that's so dangerous".

"I once heard of a kid that was told to jump into the Black Lake to poke the Giant Squid" blurted Blaise, "He hasn't set foot in water ever since".

"Another one had to sneak out after curfew and run around a group of Red Caps without a wand" muttered Daphne conspiratorially "And there was the story about the girl who had to steal a pair of Flitch's underwear". She grimaced at the thought, and my nose wrinkled in disgust.

"I know that they will play psychological games on us, to scare us" chimed in Theo. "And from what I've been told, they always find a way to make you do what they ask".

"Who's they?" my brain taking in all of the crazy tales took a moment to put it all together but quickly asked "The mentors?"

"Yes, they are the ones in charge of the trials" Theo was now growing apprehensive as the Great Hall was filling up with students.

I felt a light kick under the table and saw Daphne signaling us a group of older students sauntering up the Slytherin table. They were a group of boys, most likely in their final year, robust and intimidating. Their grins were growing wider just by looking at us all, their new victims. I could see them laughing and pushing each other excitedly. Most likely, this whole ordeal was some kind of revenge for whatever they were asked to do on their initiation.

The four of us sat in silence for the remainder of the time, the mysterious trials looming over our day.


End file.
